Rear Hidden Hitch Bumpers (not high-clearance)

Surprised no ones brought up fab fours rear bumper. I know it wasn't in the poll, but they do make a version with holes for the parking sensors. Still lose BSM, but better than losing all of it imo. Not sure how the fitment is on those yet though, but it's the one I'm considering currently.

 

I believe all the ones listed in the poll offer an option for backup sensors. They do all lose BSM.

 

I don't think they offer a hidden hitch version. Also not a fan of the branding on the bumper.

 

I’ll take some measurements this weekend.

 

Yeah the brackets look different.

 

Any word from RCI? I know they said they don't have much presence on the forum. Curious to hear their solution.

 

Josh posted earlier. I'm also curious to know if there was a redesign in the bracket and what the issue is.

 

Actually, I did notch that flange to try and use the bottom holes, but it’s too high. Bumper was contacting the tail light before the holes lined up. The bottom hole on your bracket looks higher than mine, but it looks like yours fit good.

Since some of the bolts definitely still has some play, I’m going to remove a couple of the bolts that I think is causing the issue and see if I can align the bumper better. This should help me identify the holes with issues.

 

Looks like I was sending to the wrong email address. I resent the email this morning, but haven’t gotten a reply yet. However, he did PM me and he seems to think there’s still room to move it up. He told me to use a jack to align the bumper which I already did. Basically I already tried what he suggested this past weekend and it’s not a solution.

 

I think your idea of removing some of the bolts for testing is good. That along with a jack to position/hold it up should give you a good idea of the problem.

 

Second that. It’s my only hesitation due to the branding on the sides.

 

So I got around to messing with this stupid bumper again today. I removed the back 2 bolts to try and align it better and it still had a fairly large gap below the tail light, but definitely better. However, I would have to enlarge the top rear bolt hole quite a bit and there wouldn’t be much metal to bolt on to after. Here’s the best I could adjust without the back 2 bolts:



Here’s what the bracket looked like with the bumper adjusted like this:

That bottom hole needs about 1/8” shaved to get a bolt in there. The top hole needs more than 1/4” shaved:

I didn’t want to take that much off that hole so I left it alone. Besides that wouldn’t completely resolve the issue anyway. There would still be quite a bit of gap.

I decided to just try and adjust it the best I can with the holes as is. At this point the only way to reduce the gap to the taillight is to tilt the bumper. I had to trim this piece of metal because the bumper was hitting it when I tilted the bumper.

Here’s what it looks like now. I basically traded off symmetry for less gap. From the rear it looks better than before, but the gap is still quite large. The side profile still erks me. Since the bumper had to be tilted to reduce the gap to the tail light the bottom corner of the bumper is about 1” away from the body and the top of the bumper is about 1/2” away from the body. Basically it no longer follows the body line and the bumper is still hanging lower than the body. I’m not sure which is worse. Not having symmetry to the body line or having a huge gap from the light. Here’s what it looks like now:


Basically this RCI rear bumper fits like f@&king shit!!!!! I am so erked. still can’t believe how different the fit is compared to others. I hope others that got their bumpers made at the same time doesn’t have this issue.

 

I feel your pain dude. That's completely unacceptable.

 

What resolution has RCI offered? Are they telling you to just live with it?

 

Not to add any salt to the existing wound... but I dug up a few more pictures to show how much gap I ended up with. I did have a little bit of wiggle room left but I was happy with the install results.

Something is screwy with this bumper @SK808, unless you were rear-ended in the past and haven't told us.

 

What issues did you have with the hidden hitch?
I'm asking because I am looking at the hidden hitch but still want to actually tow.

 

I received a PM from Josh last week to try using a jack and he seems to think it can still be adjusted more. I sent them an email telling him I used a jack and sent them pic’s of the bracket. I haven’t received an email back. I’m going to shoot them another email today with my new pic’s.

 

I have never been in an accident with this truck.

 

I didn’t have a flip-up plate mount, so I had to remove the plate every time. I would have done that anyway, even with a flip-mount, because technically your plate needs to be displayed and lighted to be legal, even while towing. I didn’t want to give a cop that particular excuse to pull me over, so I relocated it to the shackle mount and ran separate lighting.

My previous Relentless hidden-hitch bumper also didn’t have eyelets for safety chains. So I had to rig something up with the shackle mounts.

The receiver opening dimension was a little off and wouldn’t easily accept a hitch. It was also way underneath the truck, so just getting the receiver in was a pain. It interfered with the spare.

Finally, it didn’t have a provision for the trailer lights, so I was zip-tieing it up all the time.

Overall just a pain compared to the few times where a regular hitch would have scraped the ground.